Daft PunkBreaking House Rules

It's been five years since the French combination of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem Christo submitted their dance floor-shattering debut, Homework, and there's a very good explanation for the delay of their highly-anticipated follow-up. A new Daft Punk record had been under wraps while the duo toured their brilliant first release as well as crafting D.A.F.T.: A Story About Dogs, Androids, Firemen and Tomatoes, an extensive self-produced DVD with all their marvellous videos to date. But the main hold-up was that Thomas and Guy-Man had been painstakingly piecing together their sophomore record, Discovery, for the past two years in hopes of achieving a record that they are pleased with. "There was a lot of personal pressure," recalls Bangalter. "We didn't feel any pressure from the outside world or the media  just on ourselves. Fulfilling our expectations took time."

Daft Punk turned many heads with the unique Homework and the pair set out to reinvent that sound and release an effort that was completely fresh. "We don't like to do the same thing twice," admits Bangalter. "That's how we've always made music. We try to take things further rather than what we've done in the past or whatever everyone else is doing." Daft Punk has definitely succeeded in making an album that is far more complex than their first. "We were interested in innovating and trying new things for ourselves," says de Homem Christo. "Some elements are like Homework  the pumping effect and the house rhythm underlining it, but we wanted to add many different layers and influences and add more soul and emotion."

Some of the ingredients added to Discovery are aspects of hair-metal riffs and disco breaks, giving the record an overall 80s vibe. "The 80s feel has a lot to do with our childhood," notes Bangalter. "We wanted to be in a state like when you were a child and were open-minded. When you listened to music you didn't really judge it  you either liked it or you didn't. You were listening to your true inner feelings about music. When people are growing up they analyse too much. We think people are free to do what they want.""House music is not supposed to have so many rules," says de Homem Christo. "Without the rules the influences can be anything. We experimented with stuff that some might find crazy, but we wanted to widen and make the spectrums of influence much larger, because house and electronic music is about freedom."